The camera on the iPhone 5 may not be much different from that on the 4S, but that could change very soon. A patent application from Apple reveals what we could see from the snapper on the next iPhone.

New features include gesture controls, new stabilisation tech, and a few ways to say sayonara to red-eye.

There are no fewer than seven patent applications recently discovered from Apple. The most interesting of the bunch details a whole new way of editing photos as you take, using touch gestures. This could see you using tap-to-edit for in-camera retouching, in much the same way as you tap-to-focus. Image filters, “location-based distortions”, lightening and darkening… It’d be like a shrunken down on-the-fly Photoshop. Which sounds pretty cool.

Another patent application describes the camera showing a stabilised image so you can see whether it’s well composed, or if it looks like it was taken on a treadmill. You’d then have the option of swapping it for a more stabilised version it’s already snapped.

There are another five – count ‘em – patent applications describing ways to eliminate red-eye, which is caused by using the flash. Multiple recognition channels identify red-eye, and replace it with a “photographically reasonable result”. We’ll have to wait and see how that one works out.

Would you like to see these new features on a future iPhone 6 or iPad 4? Let us know what you reckon.